Valuation

So here we are.  I'm doing project house tidy (or rather will be when I get off my comp!) in preparation for the valuation of the flat I live in later today.

Should hopefully find out afterwards if my landlady is going to put it on the market, and at least then I'll know where I stand.

Payday

Just been paid in both jobs today, so been moving money around to see where I stand...

£12.45 saved this week from my weekly budget... would have been more but had to contribute to a present for my boss at work.  This is in my money tin as is cash; will be paid in at a later date.

Also saved:

£15 saved in second job bank account that I didn't withdraw
£4.34 saved from main bank account that I didn't use this month
£196.22 saved from extra pay in job #1 (expenses, paid overtime and holiday sold back)

Plus £7.07 cleared from TopCashBack - just waiting for it to hit my bank account.

Have transfered all this money (except for the cash in my money pot) into my new ISA, ready to use against my credit card #2 when the 9 months interest free period ends.

Annoyingly job #2 have underpaid me this fortnight, leaving me £49.82 in my buffer account when it should be more like £88 - will have to follow this up.  £36 still left from last month's council tax free month, which is good as I can use this against my new tax disc, due in April.

All going fairly well on the financial front then.  Just got to get through an appraisal at work, and although I'm good at my job I'm so behind on my admin I'm likely to get a telling off... :(

This week's budget

Somehow I still have £18.45 left, and only 2 more days to get through...!

Have decided to put £10 in my money tin, so as only to have £8.45 on me, to try and make sure I don't splurge : )

Points sites

Been getting into points websites lately... 
Just added links to Swagbucks and Superpoints websites on the right if you want to have a go too.

These are sites you can do stuff on to earn points - surveys, watch videos etc., and points = prizes!  Or rather Amazon vouchers, cash via Paypal etc.

It takes a little while to rack up the points, but I seem to be managing it without too much effort, and a fiver claimed here and there is still a fiver here and there!

Also added a link to TopCashBack - great website for claiming money back on online purchases.

All the links are referrals... this means if you use them it will get me some points, but also get you some too : )

Woohoo

Laptop is back : )

They were able to fix it in the end, so that's made me £55 out of pocket rather than £350ish out of pocket for a new laptop, so am a happy bunny!

Paid the £55 out of the £91 saved from this month being a council tax free month, so felt fairly painless!

Just joined Twitter...

Might be nice to have to keep it short and snappy : )

And with my laptop still out of action, I can update easily on my phone!

Feel free to follow me - button is on the right.

Busy, busy, busy!

Am working a crazy amount of hours this week, what with full time work + 25 hours in my second job, due to taking some cover shifts.  However, this is helping to keep me sane, and stopping me from worrying about my housing situation etc.

Need to be more positive.  Blatantly failing on that New Year Resolution I made!

Paid in my pot of savings money this week as it was getting full... that with some online savings almost totals £100, almost.  All is now in my shiny new ISA that I set up a few days ago.

My laptop is still in the computer shop at the moment as they try to figure out what is wrong with it.  Turns out it wasn't as straightforward as it first appeared.  Fingers crossed I won't have to buy a new one... we'll have to see I guess.

Got a busy couple of weeks ahead, but after that I must get off my backside and sell some stuff... especially as I may have to move house at some point.  Got a few expensive dresses to get rid of, and think I might try a dress agency as the first port of call.  If I get a spare minute this weekend I might put a couple of things on Ebay (things I want to start at more than 99p) to take advantage of their free listing weekend.

Oooh in other news, I have a date next weekend to look forward to : )

It's all falling apart

Disturbing news today.  A friend who is also my landlady has texted to say she wants to meet to talk about the flat.  I wanted to cut to the chase and texted back to ask if she is selling it.  She said she's not made a decision yet, but has booked for an estate agent to come round and value it in a couple of weekend's time.

I am a landlady myself, and rent mine out to someone I met through my letting agency that I was using initially to set the tenancy up.  If I was to get the property valued I would let my tenant know before I even booked the appointment, and she isn't a friend.  I am quite hurt that my friend has done this without even consulting me, even though I know full well she has a right to do whatever she wants when it comes to the property.

You may ask why I own somewhere and then rent somewhere else.  I bought mine when property prices were higher and then decided to relocate back to my home town after a couple of years.  I tried to sell it just as the recession started, and the offers I got were a lot lower than I paid and I would have lost a lot of money that I'd put into the property.  I decided therefore it made the best sense to rent it out for the time being.  I ended up renting out my friend's flat as she moved in with her boyfriend, and she was in the same position as me - would lose money to sell hers.

Nothing is definite yet, but I'm already dreading potentially becoming 'homeless'.  My first port of call was to ring my dad and ask if I can move back in if necessary.  Poor dad had to put up with me sobbing down the phone, but he made me feel a bit more sane, telling me that I am 'having a rough time of it at the moment', and that he felt bad for me, and was happy to be a shoulder to cry on.  Anyway, moving back in with them is always a possibility, although there isn't room for most of my stuff, so I would have to pay for a storage unit.  And my commute would go from 5 minutes to 45mins/1 hour every day.  It's also obviously a step backwards.

I explained to my dad that the problem is I don't have the cash spare to put down a deposit to rent anywhere else (unless I use a credit card, which defeats the point of everything I'm trying to achieve), and that I am going to struggle to find anywhere anyway that will let me keep my cat with me.  The advantage of renting from my friend was no deposit to find and letting me have the cat here.

I am facing redundancy later this year, as my sector is disappearing, being wiped out by government cuts...  My dad suggested to me I look at jobs further afield, and maybe have a fresh start somewhere, as he has picked up on how unhappy/stuck in a rut I am at the moment.  He thinks it would do me good to start somewhere new and perhaps he is right.  However, I will still have the same problems of finding a rental deposit and being able to take kitty with me.

Perhaps I should look into selling my flat, even though I'll make a loss on it.  I could use the profit to pay off my debts and then I could start again.  I have always been loathe to do this, as it won't leave me with enough to buy another property, and makes the whole getting on the property ladder a total waste.

Why does life have to be so hard?  2011 was bad and this year is turning out no better.  I've always been very independent, but suddenly the idea of having my parents around me feels quite nice.  I feel I need the love and support at the moment.

30p

That's all that's left of this week's budget, to last until Friday!  Donated £1 to charity by buying a cupcake (wasn't completely alturistic haha) and spent £2 on a sandwich.  Must make sure I take lunch with me on Thursday, or admit defeat and spend a bit of money out of budget...

Savings are currently up to £71.32 with £20 to add from my bingo winnings a while back.  Trying to do 'risk free' bingo at the moment to make a little money - basically the principle is to sign up to sites that offer free money to play with (the one I signed up with was via an account on a points site and I got £5 free to play with), or to sign up to sites via a referral, giving some bonus money to play with, and then go for it!  Some of the sites require a £10 deposit, but I am only doing this with sites that I get £10 back from immediately via referral money.  Basically the idea is, spend no money or only money I can definitely get back, and make money by signing up via cashback websites, or by being lucky enough to win some!  Lucky I don't have an addictive personality, as I imagine some people would keep spending their own money on these sites...  I personally find online bingo pretty tedious.

Credit card #2 is now at £772.50 following my 0% balance transfer of £750 for 9 months to pay off my friend and the existing balance on the card, plus the £22.50 balance transfer fee.  Decided to set up a savings account to put the money in that I'm saving up towards paying this off (as I like to have different accounts to split up my money), and decided a Cash ISA is the best way forward, as they have the best interest rates.  Have decided that rather than using this account as a temporary holding area to keep the money separate from my other spending, I might save up the money to pay off the £772.50, and then pay it all off in one hit just before my 9 months 0% interest is up.  This would give me 9 months' savings interest on the money rather than making no interest on the money by paying it off my card in bits, quicker.  I think this is the best idea, although I won't like looking at the credit card balance barely coming down over the next 9 months!  I will of course, have to pay minimum payments so it'll come down a little bit in that time, but psychologically this will be a weird thing to get my head around.

Best get sell, sell, selling to start raising the money!

Blown the budget

Already!  Friday's budget of £30 is down to £3.30 to last me until next Friday (9th)... yikes! 

I barely bought anything last week and ended up spending just under £16 out of my budget, with the other £14 going on £2 coins, £10 of which were purely random, £4 of which were me deliberately buying £2 coins at job #2 to stop me spending on the penultimate day of my budget.

However, the flip side of this, is that I needed to stock up this week, with cat food, toilet roll and the like, as well as food, meaning my supermarket spends were high.  On Friday night I bought a couple of things, and then on Saturday did a Sainsbury's shop.  I'm getting increasingly annoyed at the Basics Range... just keeps going up and up in price every time I go through the door.  Basics Blueberries, were 90p, now £1.15.  Basics Fruit & Fibre, was 60something p, now £1, etc. Starting to wonder if I'm going to be priced out of eating...!  I might shift my buying to Tescos and Morrisons going forward... Tescos often have good reductions on stuff going out of date, and Morrisons tends to be generally cheaper, and their Value range is ok. 

Almost everything seems to cost over £1 now.  And I continue to get really upset over how much cheese is!  £2.20 for a small block of mature cheddar has always seemed a lot to me :(

Just as well I get fed breakfast and lunch 3 days a week in one of my workplaces.  And working evenings for my second job often stops me eating dinner, so instead I eat a small snack, which can work out cheaper, though I don't know how good for me that is.

Adding to the fact my supermarket shops were fairly hefty, Sainsbury's gave me x2 £2 coins in my change meaning I have to save them, hence why I am left with so little to live off for the rest of the week.

Let me think about what I'm going to need to buy.  On Monday I am not in my usual place that feeds me, so I will need lunch.  Evening dinner I have stuff in for.  Tuesday and Wednesday should be ok as I'll be fed at work, and have stuff to eat in the evenings.  Thursday I will need lunch, and also something to get me through my Thursday evening job #2 shift.  Friday = new budget.  I think I'll be ok.  Cheese sandwiches if nothing else now I've forked out my £2.20! ;)

Hoorah! Back online :)

Using my work laptop... now why didn't I think of that before?!